Artificial Intelligence in the Classroom: The Effects of Replika on EFL Speaking

This study investigated whether implementing artificial intelligent technology (i.e., the chatbot Replika) was effective in improving EFL Speaking skill over a six-week course. Moreover, it explored the attitudes of learners towards chatting with chatbots. ۴۰ upper-intermediate EFL learners homogenized on their speaking ability (using IELTS speaking module as the speaking pretest) were assigned to two speaking classes. The experimental group chatted with the avatars they created on Replika as their pre-speaking activity in speaking classes. The control group attended conventional speaking classes having pre-speaking activities with human partners. Participants each session discussed a new topic concerning general life issues. The results revealed that the experimental group significantly outperformed the control group on the speaking posttest showing to have more fluency, coherence and lexical resource in their speech. Moreover, conversing with a chatbot was welcomed and viewed positively by most learners. The findings of this study suggested that the self- and easy-access facility of chatbots seemed to have encouraged learners to have more contribution in the class discussions thus leading to the improvement of EFL speaking.

Keywords:

Computer-assisted language learning , artificial intelligence , chatbots (Replika) , EFL Speaking skill , learners' attitudes